Before we start the “night party”, we stopped by first on different travel agencies to book a package for the next day’s trip! We all decided to go to Angthong Marine Park and do water sports. Karen, possesses good negotiating skills, managed to cut down the package price from 1800 to 1350 Baht each! That’s a good bargain. However, Drew won’t be joining us since he’s been there few years back.

I don’t know what’s wrong with Ladyboy Gaga but he’s getting on my nerves lately. I find him so annoying and loud! I was tired of listening to his galling voice and wanted to just go out and drink. But seems like everyone doesn’t want to go yet so I left them and walked out! Was I drunk? No. I dunno hehe.

Not answering Alex and Andy’s calls and text messages, I went to a go-go bar few blocks away from them. I had a bottle of beer there trying to cool down before I head back. I didn’t stay there for long. I don’t want to spoil the night so I came to meet them again. This time they were already drinking. I ordered beer and bucket and shared to everyone. But Ladyboy Gaga decided to go home and have his beauty rest. Anna also hit the bed early that night. So it was only me, Karen, Andy, Alex, and Drew stayed there.

A mate from TB, Punit, texted me that he’s just around the corner and want to meet us. He came with a friend to see us and invited us to join them partying in the beach area but we were just started the night while they’re already in the middle of having some good time. So we opted to stay where we are while they head back to the beach.

After we finished our buckets and beers we walked down the street to see other bars. I think this time we already lost Alex. Most likely, he went to go-go bars haha. But 4 of us (Karen, Drew, Andy, and me), stayed in the Soi street. We first went inside an open-air club just down the street but the music is freaking loud and the drinks ain cheap either. So we went out and find a cheap place to drink. When we were about to give up, we found this dodgy-stinky pub along the street where customers are so few. But hey, they have the cheapest bucket out there! 9-shots bucket for 249 Baht! Niccceeeee!

We consumed so many buckets! (countless hahaha) I was pretty drunk I must say. I can’t even remember how we lost Drew. Coz in the end, it was only me, Andy, and Karen left drinking haha. Karen impressed me! She’s a tough girl. It’s hard to make her drunk! Hahaha. But she’s wasted too for sure. She even almost passed out inside McDonalds haha. We took a tuktuk and brought her home.

If you think we already called the night off? NO! Not yet! Andy and I decided to go back to pub street and find a place that’s still open that time hahaha. Sounds crazy, aye? Hihi But since it was probably around 5am, most of the bars were already closed. However, we found a small bar which’s still open and few people still drinking. That’s where we met Charmaine.

Charmaine is a young Scottish girl currently living in Thailand. I don’t know how it all started but it was a very profound conversation, she told us her experiences in life, all her struggles to attain her dream to travel, her sacrifices, adventures, even her situation with her parents. It was surreal! It’s weird that you meet strangers with almost the same experiences, same obsession, and same principles on that kind of place and time. I nearly cry just listening to her stories. I can so relate to her. I am very emotional especially when I’m drunk, but I don’t want to sob my heart out that moment. But really, it was something so special, so bizarre.

In an hour or less, we’ll see the sun. And we still have a day tour that morning so we really have to go back to our room. So we hugged her and bid our goodbyes. It was pleasure meeting you Charmaine, hope to see you again in the future.

After our dinner, we went on the same bar that we hang out the other night, Rooftop. And my buddy Anton from Russia joined us too! I met him a year ago in the airport on our way from Manila to KL and we chilled out here for few nights. Since then we still keep in touch and few days before my Thailand trip, he told me that he will be there the same time as me. So we planned to meet that night and party in Thailand! He didn’t stay with us the whole night though. He went back to his place around 2am. But it was really nice meeting you again my friend! J

A group of UN volunteers joined our table and jammed with us. Everyone was already drunk I must say. But I still know what’s happening around. I’m bit surprised that I don’t easily get wasted despite all the walking and touring during the day hehe.

I think it was past 3am when the bar closed but we are still going strong and kicking. However, Alex was so f*cking drunk already. He went inside the next door club named “The Club” by himself swerving. We both fell down on the ground when I was trying to pull him out. No one cared to help us lol. He doesn’t want to leave the place so we left him there.

Jodi, Drew, Andy, Marius, Carlyn, Hakima, and I moved to Gazeebo for more booze of course. But the music was so loud that we can’t even hear each other. After few drinks there, Andy and I went back to The Club to find Alex.

There are a lot of hookers hanging around inside waiting for their potential clients and some of them are obviously minors. Prolly Alex already hooked up with one of them because he’s no where to be found. Andy and I stayed there’s ‘til closing time. The crowd was mixed of tourists and locals… and ladyboys too! Andy had a funny experience with one of them. All the while he thought that the girl he was dancing with is a real she, but she’s NOT. And the “girl” even kissed him! Hahaha. How’s that? :P

It was past 5am when the club closed. I think Andy can’t get over with the ladyboy yet as I still have to convince him to leave the place hahaha. Poor boy. :P

Before going home, we feed our alcohol-filled stomach with the most sumptuous Phad Thai ever haha! Everything tastes good when you’re starving and drunk haha. We sat on the sidewalk for an hour, eating our Phad Thai and talking none-sense to the Phad Thai girl. Andy finds the girl cute! Everyone is cute for him, duh! But in fairness, she made our night even more fun and memorable. Despite the language barrier, she still kept us entertained. She’s amusing. ;)

For your information, I intentionally did not include this event from the previous entries because it's quite delicate and must be written separately.

Late Mia was a good friend of mine. We're teammates and seatmates. We used to go out everytime we have time to. She loved to make "libre" to everybody. Sadly, she was diagnosed with cancer and after 2 years of battling from her sickness, she died.

She left so many great memories in my life. She gave me a rosary and a picture of us when we had our escapade in Puerto Gallera, before I left to US (with a message "hope wag mo kami kakalimutan"). She left me text messages days before she gone which I still saved in my phone.

Two months after, I received a forwarded text message saying something like "an angel exists but sometimes, since they don't all have wings, we call them friends. Pass this on to your friends and something good will happen to you at 11:00 in the morning something you have been waiting to hear. Someone will call you by phone or will speak to you about something that you were waiting to have.", the first person comes into my mind that time was Mia. Then around 11am, Edmund (my employer, right now) called me and sent me the contract. I was stunned and shocked. Might be coincidence, it did happen so to speak. Since then, I considered her as my guardian angel. I always talk to her everytime I need someone to talk to and always asked for her guidance. I sometimes sent SMS to her like as if she's still here with us and was just sent onshore. Every time I traveled, I always bring the rosary with me. And whenever I have problems, I confide to her. She's been my confidant and listener. If there's one person who knows what I've been dealing with, it's her. So she's very special to me.

Friday, before we went to the party, I suddenly missed her so I opened our pix at Puerto Gallera. I even let Gerry saw them. Then during the party when everyone was "high with the spirit of the alcohol", Leo suddenly broke down. He was trying to hold his tears and ran to his room. As we all know, Leo is Mia's bf. In fact, there's a collage pictures of them in their living room. I followed him and tried to console him. He cried aloud and broke down in front of me and Donnie. I can't help myself but to cry as well. Everything just flashbacked, from the moment I met her, our visits in the hospital, and during her wake. I also cried in sorrow. I felt Leo that night. I tried to hold my emotions but it was so hard so I broke down too. I let his heart cry about the pain he's feeling right at that very moment.

The next day when I saw him, we never talked about that moment. I don't want to open a conversation that he might feel uncomfortable. Even when we went to PJ, we never talked about that.

Then yesterday he popped me a message. He thanked me for being there for him. He thanked me for remembering Mia. He thought no one remembered her. He thought she was already forgotten by her friends. He thought he was all alone missing Mia. He thanked me for crying with him. He said after that, he dreamt of Mia. In all occasions, he always feels down whenever he dreamt of her but that instance was different. He felt relief and at peace.

I know for sure Mia wants Leo to move on. She will never be forgotten for sure but Leo still has life ahead of him to take good care of. I know Mia is very proud of him. Leo you're going there... just hold on and you'll be fine.

Mia, as promised, I will take an eye on Leo 'til I know he's already moved on.

Date Scribed: October 17, 2007

My gracious goodness, I am a year older now. Last Sunday, October 14, 2007, I celebrated my 27th birthday. Before reminiscing the past and contemplating for the future, let me tell you guys what made my birthday so special...

Due to persistent requests of my friends from Scope to "treat them" for my birthday, I asked Charisse last Thursday night to accompany me somewhere in Bukit Bintang area to look for a reasonable restaurant as a venue for my birthday treat. We went to Planet Hollywood but they'll be close on Sunday to celebrate Hari Raya. We went to Hartz Chicken Buffet but seemed too crowded. After an hour or two, we didn't find any prospect. Since we're both starving, we decided to take our dinner at U-Village, a HongKong restaurant. We ordered Cheese Chicken Wings and French toast for our appetizers, big set rice for our main course, and coffee and tea for our drinks. No desserts as our stomach were already full.

After our sumptuous dinner, we went to Borders to find this book with all these nice restaurants here in Malaysia. There's a Starbucks inside the bookstore so we stayed there and scanned the book but again, didn't find any affordable restaurants nearby so we went home with nothing in mind.

Friday came, October 12, 2007, without any plans yet. While having my lunch with my office friends, one of them asked me why would I treat my friends for my birthday? Wouldn't supposed to be the other way around? To tell you frankly, all my life since I started working I was the one treating my friends on my birthday because that's how it goes in my previous company. And there was only one instance I can remember that a close friend of mine treated me during my 24th birthday. (Thanks Ronnie!) So they suggested, I'd rather spend the money to treat myself. But then we all wanted to have a good weekend, so we decided to go to Redbox right after office hours. (KKB po 'to). But last minute, Donnie proposed why not celebrate it on their unit instead? As agreed by all, after office hours, Donnie, Mavic, Lisa, Charisse and I went straight away to Kota Raya and Cold Storage to buy ingredients for the food that they'll be preparing. Donnie cooked bake macaroni, Lisa prepared ground pork nachos, Mavic and Charisse helped in preparation, while Leo went to The Mall to buy drinks and chicken.

It was around past 8 when the party started. We have bake macaroni, nachos, fried chicken, brownies, and ice cream in the table. Simple yet mouthful. Thank you guys for preparing these!
After dinner, we started the drinking session right away. I would say this is the main happening of the night! Hehe. Leo brought out 2 bottles of vodka, 1 bottle of wine, 1 bottle of sky vanilla, and half-filled bottle of whisky. Of course, karaoke will always be part of it. Hell we care (though magkapiyok-piyok at masintunado kami), we just all wanna have some fun! F*ck that I didn't charge my cam so we failed to capture those funny, wacky, hilarious moments that night.

Believe me, all of us were soooo drunk. That was when I had my first face-to-face encounter with the toilet bowl. It was my first time to be in total blackout; my first time that I totally can't remember what I have done. But I didn't feel embarrass because everyone has their own boo-boos that night hehe. The last thing I can remember, I was going to the toilet almost every 2 minutes. Then someone gave me a hot coffee but I didn't manage to drink. Then I rested on the chair then that's it. I can't remember what happened next. The next thing I knew, it was already 8 in the morning and I was sleeping on one of the rooms haha. Did they rape me? That I don't know hahaha. Lucky that my condo is just a walking distance away from theirs so I manage to go home the next morning safely even I was still so tipsy.

October 13, 2007, I slept the whole afternoon and woke up around 2pm. Still with hangover, I fixed myself up and went to Time Square to take my lunch, to do a little bit of shopping, and to have my hair done as well. I chose Transit Hair Salon located on the 7th flr of Berjaya Time Square because of its hip ambiance. They even have LCD flat screen TV on each chair to watch a movie while they do their business. But all these cool treatments come with a quite pricy price. For a two-tone hair colors and a haircut from a professional stylist, it costs me 144RM (roughly 2K pesos). But all worth it. I really like the way the stylist colored my hair. She used brown for the base and blonde for the highlights. =)

I was supposed to have a facial treatment but I didn't have much time as I still need to go home and prepare myself for the Saturday night out with my office friends. We (Lisa, Agnes, Charisse, Mavic and I) all met at Donnie and Leo's unit. We left their place past 10 and went to P.Ramlee area. We first went to Puppy's bar. Entrance fee is 35RM/pax with free complimentary drinks. The crowd was young and yippee. Too young for us I guess. I didn't like the music much so after we finished our glasses of vodka and champaigne we headed to Bed bar in Asian Heritage Row. This is where we meet Jay after his work. Entrance fee here is 40RM/pax but since we intended to stay here for the rest of the night, I suggested buying one bottle of vodka worth 350RM rather than paying for individual fee. Besides, if you buy it, entrance fee for maximum of 5pax is already covered. But since we're 8, we have to pay 120RM for the 3 extras. Still, it saved us a considerable amount rather than having one complimentary drinks then buying individual drinks inside.

It wasn't my first time to go to this bar. The last time was with Eric when he brought me to Cynna as well. It was named B beautiful then and the music was plainly boring techno. So I was so surprised that when we came there, the music genre played from RnB, Pop, to Hiphop. It was a hell of a fun. We danced the whole night long. We're all tired and some were tipsy when the party was over. We were then introduced to some of Jay's party friends who happen to be on that bar as well. But we still don’t want to go home yet. We went to Marriott to pick up Jay's things and to fix ourselves up, except Lisa and Agnes who were so tired and decided to go home. After that, we went to Bukit Bintang strip to find a place where we can spend the rest of the morning 'til sunrise over a cup of coffee. Jay knows the place well so we let him lead the way. We went to this hawker area where groups of people were already there (most of them gone there after party for sure). In our surprise, the owner is a Filipina so we didn't have a hard time choosing the best food to eat. Yes, the intial plan of just a coffee turned out to have another yummy breakfast for us haha. We ordered fried seafood rice, big tilapia, and beef. We all went home delightedly full.

Again, my body clock wasn’t normal. October 14, 2007, I was in bed the whole morning and already woke up after lunch. I went out to pamper myself. I finally had my facial and do a little bit of shopping again. Gosh, I have to stop myself from impulsive shopping! Oh well, I just let myself because it’s my birthday hehe. I attended the mass at 6pm and stayed in the church for a little while after the mass. I thanked Him for all the blessings that he has given me. I thanked Him for another wonderful year and wishing for another fruitful year to come. After hearing mass, I went home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

October 15, 2007, (still holiday here in Malaysia), Leo and I met at Masjid Jamek around lunch time. We were heading to Petaling Jaya to meet Almer who just arrived the other night from Manila. He was our Manager from our previous work but also decided to move here and work. Anyway, I had lunch with Leo, Almer, Tza, Vera, Migz, Allan, Anna, and Marla @ iThai. They're all my friends from our previous company and obviously, we're now all working here hehe. I liked all the food that they ordered but what I really like most was the ice-blended lychee! (I remember my daily Big Chill session with Rye and Anai back then). I had a great time catching things up because I haven’t seen them for so long. Truly, it was a great lunch with you guys! Hope to do that again...

Past 4 in the afternoon, Leo and I accompanied Almer to buy some of his things in Mydin (ang Uniwide ng Malaysia hehe). We finished past 7 already so we decided to have our dinner @ Picadilly before Leo and I head back home. Indeed, it was a great time seeing you again. Thanks for your laughter and fun! I missed that so much... =)

Tuesday, October 16, 2007, everything's back to reality; though I hate it. As if I have a choice hehe. Anyway, a Spanish chatmate arrived in KL for a business trip a few days ago and invited me for a dinner and drink. For all you know, I am fond of meeting new acquaintances. And since he's already here, might as well take the chance to meet him in person (we've already seen each other several times in webcam though). I cancelled my plans for the night and missed the gym to go home early. But the last minute, he cancelled the meeting because he was fucking busy. Fuck! I was really pissed off with that, who wouldn't? Fortunately, my buddy Hardus was online so I spoke to him and air my anger hehe. Then late that night, my long lost friend Martin came online so we did video conferencing in Skype. Gosh, I haven't talked to him for a looong time. Honestly, I thought I already lost him. Lucky he's still kicking alive but busy as usual. Anyway, we’ve talk for like 30 minutes or so. And I had a great time chatting with him. It’s really been a long time pare! (Oh yes, he can speak a little bit of Tagalog , beat that! Hehe). Having a chance to talk to Hardus and Martin is more than enough to feel happy again. I just wish that fucking moron Spanish guy believes in Karma.

Holiday is finally over and I would say that I was able to make the best out of it. The party, the celebration, the fun, and the moments exceed way over what I've thought off. I can't describe the experiences and intense felicity that I am feeling right now, it beyond any words. Everything is a BLAST!

For all the people who made my 27th birthday memorable! Thank you! I owe you a lot guys! I will never ever forget this event for the rest of my life. Maraming maraming salamat!

Cheers!

Date Scribed: October 17, 2007